Her long essays on topics from being bi-cultural in China, to witnessing starvation and misery in China, India and Russia, were fascinating but not fast reading. One essay was about the modest acceptance speech she gave for winning the Nobel Prize in  literature for many her works about China. At a later awards dinner, she gave self-effacing, humble remarks which would have been totally acceptable in China. Author Sinclair Lewis who had been sitting next to her, glared and scolded her not to minimize herself or the worth of novels and novelists.

I had brought home The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, (2021) a novel by Honoree Fannone Jeffers, with enthusiasm. Once I started Buck’s memoir, I had to give up on even skimming through it. The opening quotation from Du Bois about the Sorrow Songs that stirred him as a child, which he called weird old songs – from the souls of slaves spoke to men – was haunting. I shall pass for now. It’s over a thousand pages in large print.

As for keeping up with magazines and newspapers, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle had a good article about women’s sports before and after the passing of Title IX. Sobering.

blog post. https://rokeefehistory.com/blog #amreading; #RochesterNY; #WNYweather; #PearlSBuck; #MySeveralWorlds; #selfworth; #honoreefjeffers; #LoveSongsofWEBDuBois; #TitleIX;